Early life

Born in Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

 in 1874, Hunter was a farmer

Farmer

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

, storekeeper, carter, and trade unionist.

Political career

Hunter stood for the Christchurch East

Christchurch East

Christchurch East is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate. It is currently held by Lianne Dalziel of the Labour Party.-History:The electorate was first created, as Christchurch City East, for the...

 electorate in the New Zealand House of Representatives

New Zealand House of Representatives

The New Zealand House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the legislature of New Zealand. The House and the Queen of New Zealand form the New Zealand Parliament....

 in 1911 (New Zealand Labour Party

New Zealand Labour Party

The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. It describes itself as centre-left and socially progressive and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935....

, NZLP), 1914 (SDP) and 1919 (NZLP). He was President of the LRC (1911-13) and SDP (1913-15). In 1931, he contested the Mid-Canterbury seat as an Independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 Labour candidate against Jeremiah Connolly

Jeremiah Connolly

Jeremiah Connolly was an Independent Member of Parliament for Mid-Canterbury, in the South Island of New Zealand.-Early life:...

, but was unsuccessful (Gustafson, p. 159).

During the 1930s, Hunter became increasingly disillusioned with the NZ Labour Party and argued that: "We have learned much of socialisation through its application in Russia. The result has been servility for the workers under the domination of dictators and, what seemed a book of beautiful ideal in 1915 has turned out to be in practice, a horrible reality" (The Christchurch Press, 6 October 1938).

Hiram Hunter was a member of the Christchurch City Council

Christchurch City Council

The Christchurch City Council is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since 2007, the Mayor of Christchurch is Bob Parker, who stood as an independent candidate...

 for ten years (1911-15; 1917-23).

Further reading

• Labour's Path to Political Independence: The Origins and Establishment of the New Zealand Labour Party 1900-1919 by Barry Gustafson
  Barry Gustafson
  Barry Gustafson is a New Zealand political scientist and historian, and a leading political biographer. He served for nearly four decades as Professor of Political Studies at the University of Auckland, and as Acting Director of the New Zealand Asia Institute from 2004 to 2006.-Politics and...
  
  (1980, Oxford University Press, Auckland)